To start out this season, I wanted to go back to the beginning and think a little about the name of the podcast.
When I was thinking about what I wanted to accomplish with this project, I kept going back to the idea of giving other Christians some quick, applicable lessons that they could use to help them develop a stronger relationship to God in a world that doesn’t generally help with that. Ultimately, I wanted to encourage all of us to be more than a Christian in name only, but rather someone who takes his or her faith seriously enough to work at it, knowing that if we don’t grow in the qualities of Christ in our lives, we’re going to fail in our efforts to live in but not of the world.
Peter talks about that in 2 Peter 1, where he lists characteristics that all of us should be cultivating: faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly kindness, love. And after the list he writes:
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The key word there is “increasing.” We need to be growing closer to the image of Christ as we get older, as we continue to face and either overcome or stumble over temptation. If we aren’t growing, we’re putting our souls at risk – and growth doesn’t happen inevitably. We don’t accidentally or coincidentally become a strong disciple. It takes work, it takes patience, it takes faith, and it takes encouragement.
And that’s why I kept coming back to the idea of “training for godliness.” That’s the phrase that the apostle Paul uses in 1 Timothy 4:
If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
— 1 Timothy 4:6-10
Paul here outlines the kind of training that each one of us needs to be engaged in, and he gives the reason: because our hope is set on God. If that’s our goal, we’re going to seek out the right exercise equipment, which is not myths, not opinion, not speculation, but the words of faith and healthy teaching passed on through the apostles. He talks about the need to focus on using those tools and those tools alone, and he describes the urgency with which we use them – we toil and strive. Just like a physical workout, we get out of it what we get in. We can’t expect to improve physically if we never stretch ourselves to the limit, if we never strain, if we never put forth extra effort.
If we want to be godly, we’re going to have to put in the work, whether it be in our study, in our prayers, or in our willingness to deny ourselves the things in life that aren’t healthy – that are a detriment to achieving that ultimate goal of being with God!
But if we’re willing to put in that work, we’re going to see benefits “in every way” – in every aspect of our life, both the physical and the spiritual. It reaps eternal rewards, unlike physical exercise, which ultimately only buys our bodies time as they get older and gradually deteriorate. We can’t train hard enough or long enough to live forever, but if we spend our energy training for spiritual things, we’ll see the payoff in the form of a closer relationship to God, better relationships with our family and friends, peace and security knowing that we’re storing up for ourselves treasures in Heaven as Jesus promises us in Matthew 6:20.
So that’s why I chose the title of this podcast.
Because a preacher’s work is a lot like a trainer. He knows how hard a person has to work to see results, he tells his charge the truth about what they need to do in order to meet those goals, but he always does that with the voice of encouragement. That’s what I want to do for you, because the best thing I could offer anyone as a brother in Christ would be to help them develop the skills they need to be a true servant of Jesus.
That’s the role of an evangelist in the Lord’s church – it’s not just about getting up and talking for 30 minutes or less on whatever he thinks will keep people’s attention. It’s not about pounding the pulpit with righteous indignation – although there’s a time for that. It’s not about reassuring the listener that everything is fine and they’re perfect just the way they are. Because none of us are good enough that we can afford to stop growing.
I pray that I can help you accomplish that this year. Because the best thing for an evangelist is to see someone come to the Lord, mature in his faith and become the child of God he was meant to be.
